Just Transition Fund, Scotland’s Biodiversity Strategy and the Natural Environment Bill: EIR release
Information request and response under the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.
Information requested
1. “How much has been funding has been delivered for the North East and Moray through the Just Transition Fund since September 2023?”
2. “Whether £25 million has been allocated to the Scottish National Investment Bank for 2023-24?”
3. “When will Scotland’s Biodiversity Strategy and the first five-year delivery plan be published?”
4. “What work has been done to build on the international engagement undertaken in developing the Edinburgh Declaration adopted at COP15?”
5. “When will the Natural Environment Bill be published to Parliament?”
6. “What consultation on the Natural Environment Bill has been undertaken by the Scottish Government?”
7. “What work has been done to designate a new National Park within this Parliamentary term.”
8. “How much of the £65 million pledged to the nature restoration fund has the fund received?”
Response
As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the Purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.
This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.
The response to your questions is attached at Annex A.
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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